• Between c.1200 and 1100 BC, the Mycenean palaces, including their archives, were burnt down for the last time
  • c.1200: Knossos, Mycenae, and Tiryns
  • c.1190 Midea, Pylos, and Thebes
  • Kydonia suffers a destruction around 1200 BC, but it seems to be rebuilt and persist until about 1100 BC
  • Feeble attempt at rebuilding at Tiryns, and a nucleated settlement within its walls for the following century
  • The remaineder abandoned without further ado

c.1180-1100 BC

Pylos, 11th century BC

Karphi, Crete

Dreros, Lasithi Plateau, Crete

• "Dorian Invasions" a.k.a. "Return of the Descendents of Herakles" (Herakleidai)
• Invasion and raiding by the "Sea peoples"
  • But these attackers, recorded in Egypt and Syria, include Denyen and Ekwesh who may = Homer's "Danaans" and "Akhai[w]ans" - i.e. Greeks Further written evidence
  • The term for "Great King," wanax (later anax), survives only as the title of heroes in Homer or as the epithet of certain male gods
  • However, the subordinate title basileus persists as one of the usual terms for "king"

• Archaeological Evidence
  • The destruction appears to be accidental, not deliberate
  • So the difficult question is, why weren't they rebuilt again?
• Complex causes
  • Natural disasters?
  • Climate Change?
  • Economic crisis?
  • Ecological unsustainability?
  • Decimation, dislocation, and migration of impoverished populations?

• Material culture forms associated with the palaces either disapper entirely or are radically transformed and reinterpreted.
  • The use of Linear B script ceases (which is, of course, why it had to be "deciphered" in modern times)
  • Burial in tholos tombs, as well as lesser "chamber tombs" that are modeled after them, ceases (which is why later Greeks misidentified them as "treasuries," etc.)
  • The megaron is radically transformed in structure and purpose, if not entirely abandoned as a design

• The traditional explanation essentially takes the perspective of the Mycenean elites, describing the succeeding period only in terms of destructions and absences
  • "Barbarian invaders"
  • Lack of written records
  • Dimminution of certain forms of wealth
  • Abandonment of major sites and, by inference, depopulation
• However, much like the "Dark Age" of the First Millennium AD, this is a period of important socio-cultural developments
  • Technological innovations: iron, ceramic manufacturing processes
  • Formation of classical Greek political institutions
  • Development of mythological canon that is eventually set down in writing

Remains from LH IIIC through 9th century BC. Possibly identified as "Old Eretria"

Late 10th Century BC. Heroon = shrine of a hero

An early founder of colonies in Italy (Magna Graecia)

Pass by the smithy and its crowded lounge in winter// time when the cold keeps men from field work, – for then an // industrious man can greatly prosper his house – lest bitter // winter catch you helpless and poor and you chafe a swollen foot // with a shrunk hand. The idle man who waits on empty hope, // lacking a livelihood, lays to heart mischief-making; it is not an // wholesome hope that accompanies a needy man who lolls at ease // while he has no sure livelihood.

While it is yet midsummer command your slaves: `It // will not always be summer, build barns.'

Works and Days, 493-503. c. 700 BC. The first written-poet in Greek (Homer composed his poems orally)

Metropolis - "mother-city" & colony (apoikia) "daughter-city"

From Pithekousai, Bay of Naples, Italy, c.750-700 BC

Chingi Vase, c.650 BC

(left and bottom) "Moliones" oinochoe, found in the Agora, Athens; (right) Krater, found in Thebes

Compare these with the shield stories in the epic poems …

First [Hephaistos] shaped the shield so great and strong, adorning it all over // and binding it round with a gleaming circuit in three layers; and //the baldric was made of silver. He made the shield in five // thicknesses, and with many a wonder did his cunning hand enrich it.

Homer, Iliad, 18.478-481.

The most famous of these was at the panhellenic sanctuary at Delphi.

The son of Peleus now brought out the prizes for the third contest and showed them to the Argives. These were for the painful art of wrestling. For the winner there was a great tripod ready for setting upon the fire, and the Achaeans valued it among themselves at twelve oxen. For the loser he brought out a woman skilled in all manner of arts, and they valued her at four oxen.

Homer, Iliad, 23.700-705.

Chora - countryside; isomoiria - "equal share"

Chersonesos (modern Sevastapol), Crimea

Smyrna, Asia Minor, as it may have appeared in the 8th century BC

House, Smyrna, Asia Minor

(left) plan and (right) Volutes of the Temple of Athena, Smyrna, Asia Minor c.600 BC.

Detail of the limestone lintel of Prinias Temple A

Korai, mid-7th century BC: (top) Thera, abandoned in quarry, 7'+ tall; (right) "Lady of Auxerre", Crete, less than 1m/3' tall; (bottom) Metope (?), from the Temple of Athena on the Acropolis of Mycenae

Fragment 16 ("To an Army Wife, in Sardis")

A troop of horse, the serried ranks of marchers, // A noble fleet, some think these of all on earth // Most beautiful. For me naught else regarding // Is my beloved.

To understand this is for all most simple, // For thus gazing much on mortal perfectino // And knowing already what life could give her, // Him chose fair Helen,

Him the betrayer of Ilium's honour. // The recked she not of adored child or parent, // But yielded to love, and forced by her passion, // Dared Fate in exile.

Thus quickly is bent the will of that woman // To whom things near and dear seem to be nothing. // So mightest thou fail, My Anactoria, // If she were with you.

She whose gentle footfall and radiant face // Hold the power to charm more than a vision // Of chariots and the mail-clad battalions // Of Lydia's army.

So must we learn in world made as this one // Man can never attain his greatest desire, // [But must pray for what good fortune Fate holdeth, // Never unmindful.]

Tr. Cox. From Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1231, a C2 AD fragment found in the early C20, now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Archaic Athens (from ancientathens3d.com).

• Athens' acropolis had a Mycenean palace
  • Avoided major destruction 1200-1100, but population still declined
• Semi-legendary kingdom ended 9th century BC, oligarchy established who governed from the Areopagus (similar to Roman Senate)
  • Attica united in the oligarchic period
• Draco's reforms (c.622/1 BC) introduced a "draconian" written law code and possibly created the ecclesia (council of 400) which was selected by lot

• Solon's reforms (594/3 BC)
  • opened the ekklesia to all citizens
  • lowered the property requirements to hold office
  • instituted economic and moral reforms
• Peisistratos seized power and ruled as "tyrant" 561-547
  • Populist who limited the power of the aristocracy and confiscated their land to distribute to poor supporters
  • Succeeded by sons Hipparchus and Hippias (to 510 BC), who were eventually overthrown with Sparta's help

• Reforms of Cleisthenes (508/7 BC) introduced new tribal system
  • 10 tribes
  • Each tribe contained a number of demoi (sing. demos, approximately translates to "township") drawn equally from the plain, the coast, and the hills.
  • About 140 total demoi

• Primary
  • Hesiod, Theogony.
  • Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, fragmentary, discovered in a papyrus archive in 1879.
  • Pseudo-Xenophon (Old Oligarch), Constitution of the Athenians.
• Secondary
  • J.M. Hall, A History of the Archaic Greek World, ca. 1200-479 BCE. Blackwell, 2007.
  • J.M. Hurwit, The Art and culture of Early Greece, 1100-480 B.C.. Cornell University Press, 1985.
  • K.A. Raaflaub and H. van Wees, eds. *A Companion to Archaic Greece. Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. Wiley Blackwell, 2009.